Tag Archives: TRACKER

Letty: Welcome back to the exciting drama filled world of Degrassi! When we left off some awkward looking Canadian preteens were doing some things and saying some stuff and being slightly annoying. Sorry guys, I can’t EVEN focus on the past right now when we are so close to ~CRAIG~. Anyways, this episode starts with that Canadian hunk of a man Tracker quizzing Sean for his upcoming Media Immersion test. Sean keeps getting the answers wrong and he is getting mad pissed. He is so worked up he can’t even help his brother fix motorcycles properly. Between questions, Tracker mentions to Sean that their mom called, and wants to talk to Sean about moving back to disgusting Wasaga Beach. Sean it NOT having it, he flips out and starts knocking shit over. Now, I looked Wasaga Beach up on Wikipedia, and it looks like a really nice place. I don’t know what Sean is so mad about. But, this young man has quite the temper! He tells Tracker, “You are not my social worker, okay!”, but Tracker, ever the good big bro, has some decent advice for Sean, “Keep your nose clean, get good grades, and everything will be okay.” Tracker, man, what a dream boat.

More like, DREAM Tracker, amirite? What?

So, it is the day of the Media Immersion test. JT and Toby are stressing out about it when Liberty and Emma stroll up. The credits aren’t even finished and Liberty is already being annoying. She is wearing a floor length denim skirt, HELLO. Even Snake is annoyed by her. She pulls out a pocket calculator to calculate how high her grade has to be to get an A+ in Media Immersion and Snake fakes hearing Mr. Radditch calling him to avoid speaking to her. UGH FUCKING LIBERTY.

I FEEL YOUR PAIN.

Emma and Sean are at his locker when Jimmy walks by and says some smart ass remark, which really isn’t that big of deal, but Sean gets all butthurt. If y’all don’t remember, Jimmy and Sean have some bad blood between them that you can read about here. Down the hall Spinner, simple, simple Spinner is trying to impress Paige and waste time. He yells at Paige to “Check this out!”, then just starts dribbling a basketball in a circle around her. He looks like a St. Bernard puppy or like he would make an excellent Lennie in the Degrassi production of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. Spinner’s impressive moves make him and Paige late for class, and who does he walk right into? Mrs. Kwan! HUWHAT?

It turns out her husband has finished his chemo, so she has come back to teach. Just in time to give a test! Oscar that weird extra kid who we don’t know anything about raises his hand and says he doesn’t feel well. It turns out he has the flu, and that gives Spinner an idea! Simple Spinner, do you really think playing sick is going to get you out of a test? We cut to Emma and Sean walking up to his house. They are going to study but Sean doesn’t want to study at his house because he is embarrassed. He doesn’t even want Emma to COME in the house and makes her wait outside. My theory, Tracker leaves a lot of porn laying around. Speaking of dreamboats, Tracker pulls up and starts talking shit to Emma, because he is still mad about her editorial in the school newspaper. This episode sure has a lot of callbacks to other episodes. He is yelling at her and is all like, “You think you’re a good influence on him? CAUSE YOU ARE.” WHOA! HE TWISTED IT ALL AROUND! HE ACTED LIKE HE WAS YELLING AT HER, BUT THEN COMPLIMENTED HER INSTEAD. It turns out that Sean hasn’t gotten in trouble since he’s been hanging out with Emma. Probably because Emma is exceptionally boring and her idea of trouble is writing a controversial newspaper article. Emma wants to know more about this “trouble” because she is a nosy bitch, but Tracker tells her not to worry about it.

Sean and Emma are studying at her house. She is trying to teach him some stupid pneumonic device to help him with the test. Sean tells her that, “she is such a Liberty” which is a HUGE insult. In response Emma tosses a dish rag right into Sean’s face. He playfully tosses it back, and she throws it back in his face, it’s all quite riveting. In a playful tone Sean says, “You wanna mess with me? I’ll mess you up, I’m big trouble.” and Emma being the giant buzzkill that she is replies, “Yeah, I heard. Tracker said you got into trouble once”. FOR GOD’S SAKE EMMA, just fucking be cool for once in your life. It turns out that when Sean was living in Wasaga Beach he got into a fight with some kid and permanently deafened him one ear. Sean isn’t proud of what he did, he just can’t control his temper, but he claims to be working on it. During this entire scene Sean’s earring is distractingly prominent. Emma seems pretty cool with all this actually, only because the incident happened a year ago. OH YES, like that is so long ago.

It is the day of test. Sean is hella nervous. The entire test is online, something that Snake seems especially smug about. The students only have 45 minutes to complete the exam, after that they are SOL. Elsewhere on campus, Spinner and Paige are in class. Spinner is yammering on about how he plans to get sick on purpose and Paige says she doesn’t care about his stupid plan. For once I agree with Paige, I hate this subplot. Terri comes in sneezing, so Spinner gets all up in her business trying to catch her germs. Spinner volunteers to throw away Terri’s coffee cup then runs his finger around the brim and licks it. ~tres declasse~

I don’t know what I’m most turned off by, this disgusting act or the tribal flames on his shirt.

Meanwhile, Sean is struggling with his media immersion test. He is in the middle of naming two file extensions, when the screen flashes that time is up. Sean didn’t finish! To make matters worse, Liberty pops in like a fucking goddamn annoying popup ad, and screeches “45 minutes remember, timed!”

MUST PUNCH

Sean is understandably pissed, he thinks he fails at everything he’s ever tried. Exacerbating the situation is Emma who keeps whining at him until Sean finally snaps at her and says, “Emma, don’t talk to me okay, just leave me alone.” then sulks away. RUROH, Sean’s anger is starting to get the better of him, as evident in him punching his poor defenseless locker. Jimmy, with very poor timing, walks by and starts joking around with Sean. Sean gets all butthurt AGAIN, and is all aggressive towards Jimmy. After an extremely heated exchange ::rolls eyes:: in which Jimmy calls Sean a FREAK (ice burn!) they start shoving each other around ineffectively. Coach Armstrong breaks them up, but it’s ON. Sean yells after Jimmy, “I’LL SEE YOU AFTER SCHOOL.” I hope it’s a fight to the death.

Violence against Drake is always acceptable.

It’s time for Mrs. Kwan’s test, and Spinner running back and forth down hallway, try to get his temperature up. It works! Mrs. Kwan feels his forehead and sends him to the nurse. Over in Media Immersion class everyone is gossiping about Sean and Jimmy’s fight after school. Why are they in Media Immersion class AGAIN? Do they only have one class? Sean strolls in late, and Snake gives him lunch time detention. Is that even allowed? Does Sean not get to eat? DOESN’T SNAKE CARE ABOUT SEAN’S BLOOD SUGAR?! Over in the nurse’s office the nurse takes Spinner’s temperature. The nurse is a man, which I think is very progressive. It turns out that Spinner has a normal temperature. Spinner claims that the thermometer is faulty, and the nurse says he has a tried and true method, and pulls out a giant thermometer and covers it in Vasoline. Spinner exclaims, “I don’t want that gunk in mouth”, and in the creepiest line in Degrassi history the nurse says, “It’s not going in your mouth”. Spinner runs out and the nurse starts laughing, then presumably starts jacking off. Back in class Mrs. Kwan tells Spinner to stop pulling all this dumb shit, and to channel the energy he expended making up schemes into school work. Mrs. Kwan is one sage bitch.

Well, Spinner passed the test. YAY, who cares? IT’S TIME FOR THE FIGHT! Sean goes to fetch Jimmy to give him a world class ass whooping. Jimmy protests, saying “We don’t have to do this, it’s stupid”, and Sean retorts “No wonder Armstrong cut you from the team.” DANG THEMS FIGHTING WORDS.Everyone in the entire school is mad pumped up for the fight as they follow Jimmy and Sean into some alley. Emma is there being annoying and whining at Sean to stop. Jimmy and Sean go right at it. They start pushing each other, as most lame middle school fights begin. Sean actually connects a couple of punches. Everyone is chanting “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” like they are at a hockey game or something. The boys are wrassling, when stupid Emma grabs at Sean. In the heat of the moment he yells,”Emma get out of here!” (my sentiment exactly) and pushes her to the ground. She is mad upset and runs away with tears in her eyes. Sean calls after her, doing the worst James Dean impression ever. Man, at this point I accidentally rewinded too far and had to watch the whole stupid fight over again. UGH.

It’s the next day, Jimmy is walking with his friends going over the fight, “Then the coward walks away after picking a fight and throwing his girlfriend to the ground.” Ashley is still pissed and gives him the cold shoulder. Spinner is in high spirits from passing all his tests, and that it’s the weekend, but UH OH he starts sneezing. Looks like his plan to contract the flu actually worked. SPINNER SHENANIGANS. Sean also passed his test with a B-. He tries to tell Emma his good news but she just walks by and ignores him. He pleads for her to stop, and we are treated with a very brief Manny appearance! He apologizes, saying “I should have listened to you, and I’m sorry.” Emma stone faces him and says “Yeah, so am I.” DAMMMMMMMN, that’s cold Em. END EPISODE.

DRAMA. God, what an uneventful episode. This was really a chore guys, that’s why it took me like two months to write this. But it all leads up to the EXCITING SEASON FINALE, and then IT’S ~CRAIG MANNING~ TIME.

Letty: Kolleen is busy playing at the beach so I am going to tackle this episode of DNG. It’s been a while since I’ve watched these old episodes so I am mega pumped revisit them and be steeped in awkwardness.

Well, Parents’ Day is approaching at Degrassi and Toby and JT are NOT looking forward to it. Toby’s parents are divorced and it turns out his bat shit crazy mom is planning on coming to Parents’ Day. As it is now, Tobes spends every other weekend with his mom and the rest of the time with his dad. When his parents are together it’s ALL OUT WAR (which in Canada could very well mean just a minor spat). JT doesn’t want his parents to come to Parents’ Night and find out about the ‘D’ he received on his last math test. To be fair, The ‘D’ should come as no surprise to his parents as it is apparent JT has some sort of learning disability based on the fact that he is wearing orange rave pants to school. Class starts and instead of Ashley’s normal morning announcements the class watches NAK, News About Kids. Emma rolls her eyes and seems put out by having to watch NAK because of their blatant product placement, but is soon drawn in by their gripping report on “squeegee kids”, homeless kids who survive by cleaning car windows.

Concerned or constipated?

Emma is quite the opinionated young woman and takes offense to NAK’s claims that the squeegee kids use their bum money for drugs and tattoos and protests that they are just trying to make a living. Since idealististic Emma isn’t one to just let shit lie, you know that we are going to have to hear more about this whether we want to or not. ::yawwwn::

Meanwhile, Paige and Terri walk in on Ashley pouting in the bathroom mirror. Ashley is morose because according to bitchy Paige, Ashley goes “all manic depressive” when she doesn’t get to give the morning announcements. It’s a good thing Emma wasn’t in the bathroom because then she would probably lecture Paige about stereotyping people with psychiatric disorders or something boring like that. Terri agrees with Paige’s assertion that Ashley is a sad sack bitch when she doesn’t get to give the announcements, but thinks that Ashley is a better reporter than those NAK kids and should get an agent. OF COURSE. I mean ~~Heather Sinclair~~has an agent, why not Ashley?!? It turns out that Tobe’s mom is a casting agent and with Ashley’s radiant beauty, over plucked eyebrows, and on-air experience, Terri knows that Ashley will definitely be signed. Terri and Ashley leave the bathroom tittering like inane chickens while bitchy Paige stares at the two thin greasy strands of hair hanging in her face in the mirror and seethes with jealousy.

Girl, Imma gonna take some scissors to those hair strings.

Outside at lunch, Emma is ranting and raving about how NAK is for chumps and that the news show is trying to buy the students’ “brand loyalty” and discourage creative thinking or some bullshit like that. She storms off to take action and her friends seem relieved that she is leaving. JT quips, “Imagine being her for a day.” Yes, imagine having a million sticks up your ass. Emma has a ballsy meeting with the principal, Mr. Radditch, who explains that in exchange for showing NAK’s crappy biased newscasts, the school received 18 new computers. Emma screeches about bribery and Mr. Radditch shoots her down by telling her that the parents voted for it and that not every kid has a computer at home. Probably just to get her the hell out of his office, he tells her to write an editorial about it that has to be in by 4 pm THAT AFTERNOON. Determined as always, Emma sets her jaw and gets to work.

Under a bridge somewhere, trolly insecure Paige is worried that Ashley is prettier than her and Spinner’s claims that he could TOTALLY see Ashley on television does nothing to make her feel better. On a unrelated topic, Paige is like supposed to be the HBIC at Degrassi and the best dude she could snag is Spinner, a guy she stole from her chubby friend? What’s the deal with that? There aren’t any cuter available guys in the ENTIRE school? Anyway, Paige makes it clear to Ashley that she is going to have some competition in getting Toby’s mom’s attention.

While Paige is busy being crappy, Emma is hard at work with Manny on her editorial in the computer lab. Manny is such a good friend, she puts up with all of Emma’s sanctimonious shit and actually seems interested in what Emma is trying to write. Super bad boy, Sean is also in computer lab and has all of his personal belongings in a chair so Manny has to stand. He scoffs at Emma’s editorial pursuits and leaves in a huff when the girls ask if he could move all his crap so Manny could sit down. That boy, he sure has a chip on his shoulder. Meanwhile, across the lab, Toby has come up with the master plan of forging a letter from Mr. Simpson stating that because of Toby’s “exemplery purformance in all of his scholastic pursuits” his parents don’t need to attend Parents’ Day. Solid plan Tobes, no need to spell check, carry on.

Emma hauls ass down the hall (she really does move with the grace and charm of a young Audrey Hepburn) to turn in her editorial and then unfortunately we are treated to a super irritating scene between Liberty and Emma in which Liberty acts like some sort of hardass newspaper editor from the 1920’s. She says things like, “I’m trying to run a professional operation here.” and the entire time the only thing I could focus on were Liberty’s weird pre-boobies, because I am some sort of pervert or something. How did Liberty get to be editor of the school newspaper anyway? She is only a 7th grader.

UGH.

Toby gives his fake spelling mistake ladened letter to his dad and immediately his dad wants to know what is up. Tobes confesses that his mom wants to come to Parents’ Night and that he would rather get caught watching porn with JT again, than have his two parents in a room together because he knows they are going to bicker. His dad promises to be on his best behavior.

BZZT! It’s Parents’ Night! Let the ~~drama~~ begin! Ashley, dressed like a beatnik poet in a black turtleneck, is primping in the bathroom. She is so nervous she is shaking and can’t apply her eyeliner properly. She asks Terri to help, and Terri with all the grace of a chimpanzee learning to use a fork, nearly pokes Ashley’s eye out. Ashley says some bitchy things to Terri (I’m glad Terri has such good friends!), when Paige busts out of the bathroom stall wearing a slinky, gold snakeskin top that bares her belly. Her shirt reminds me of a pair of snakeskin pants I bought a Gadzooks when I was 16. I wore them once and I still feel embarrassed by it. It dawns on Ashley that Paige is trying to show off for Toby’s mom, but when his mom finally shows up, she just brushes both of those dumb broads off.

Things start off normal at the meeting between Mr. Simpson and Toby’s parents but then they start blaming each other for Toby’s educational failings. Things are escalating and just when I think that Toby’s dad is going to yell at his mom for being a frigid bitch in bed, Toby stands up for himself and makes them stop arguing. Just like that Tobes sprouted his very first pubic hair.

Out in the hallway Emma and her mom, Spike, walk past a bulletin board featuring Emma’s editorial about NAK. At the same time bad boy Sean and his even more bad boy older brother,TRACKER, are walking out of a classroom discussing the editorial. Tracker says the writer of the editorial is a idiot and Emma, never being one to just shut the hell up, runs her mouth off and says that he is the idiot because he didn’t get the point. Tracker tells her they can’t afford a computer at home and without the free computers at school Sean would be falling behind at school. He then crumbles up her article and calls it garbage. I have never been so aroused in my life.

After a successful meeting with Mr. Simpson, Toby and his parents are leaving when they are bombarded by Ashley and Paige. Paige tries to be all sickly sweet and awkwardly gives his mom a polaroid of herself “to remember her by”. Again, both Ashley and Paige are given the brush off. But wait! Toby’s mom notices plain ‘ole Terri (who I actually think is very pretty, but has an extremely unfortunate gait.) by the door and hands her a business card and tells her to call if she’s ever interested in acting. Take that bitchy friends!

How could you resist those perfectly plucked brows?

With that, Parents’ Day is over. The next day at school Emma and Sean are sitting next to each other in the computer lab. Emma keeps shooting Sean these weird guilty looks and finally she gets up the nerve to send him an instant message apologizing for being a bitch to his brother. Sean tells her that her article wasn’t garbage and a super creepy closed mouth smile spreads across Emma’s face, a smile that will surely haunt my dreams.

::shudder::

After that, the episode is finally over. Well, not before Mr. Simpson punishes Toby for his shitty forgery job and makes him write a 10-page essay on why it’s wrong to falsify documents. Dude, really a 10-page essay? That’s harsh, bro.

Hopefully the next episode of Degrassi will feature something more scandalous than editorials and bickering parents–BOOOOOORING. I am ready for some real ~drama~. I hope you had fun at the beach Kolleen! ❤

Kolleen: You bet your sweet bippy I had fun at the beach! Sun, sand, surf, German fries… Then I took a nap and went to see the Helmet/Toadies concert at the Paradise in Boston. It’s been a LONG day.

Letty, I’m glad you tackled this episode. I thought it was so dull. I mean I guess seeing Terri get that comeuppance I was alluding to earlier was good, but I really thought this episode was a snoozefest. And can we talk about Tracker for a minute? Hillbilly name aside, he was the best thing this episode had going for him. I would make sweet love to him in a janitorial closet any day.

I’ll be back with more DGN tomorrow (technically today), and tune in Sunday when I tackle the pilot episode of My So Called Life!